360 ultra-Orthodox men draft to IDF this week

PM said to ask Haredim to again shelve draft exemption bill — this time until after election

Senior ultra-Orthodox MK denies report while another suggests it’s true, claiming Netanyahu lied about ever having any intention to pass law exempting yeshiva students from IDF service

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently requested that ultra-Orthodox lawmakers agree to put off coalition legislation exempting yeshiva students from military service until after the 2026 elections, the Behadrei Haredim outlet reported on Wednesday.

According to the Haredi news site, Netanyahu told senior ultra-Orthodox lawmakers in a private meeting that his coalition does not have a majority to push the controversial bill through. He also argued that the timing wasn’t right for bringing the bill back onto the agenda, given the multi-front security tensions.

Netanyahu argued that after the fall elections — assuming Likud wins again — coalition members will be focused on securing government portfolios, and will be less inclined to vote against legislation granting blanket exemptions from military service to ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students, as controversial as it might be.

The report did not specify which Haredi lawmakers were in this meeting with Netanyahu, but at least one senior ultra-Orthodox MK denied the report.

If confirmed, it would certainly be an unwelcome development for Haredi lawmakers, who received assurances from Netanyahu that the legislation would be passed toward the beginning of the government’s tenure in December 2022 and have been forced to withstand repeated delays.

The coalition’s draft exemption bill — which would ostensibly increase military conscription in the Haredi community, but ultimately enshrines continued exemptions for full-time yeshiva students — is widely seen as legally iffy and loophole-laden and has generated intense resistance even among members of  Netanyahu’s coalition.

Ultra-Orthodox parties have long demanded a law to formalize exemptions from military service for members of their community, an effort which was kicked into overdrive after the High Court in June 2024 ruled that there was no legal basis for the Haredi yeshiva students’ decades-long blanket exemption from the draft.

Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged between 18 and 24 are currently believed to be eligible for military service, but have not enlisted. The IDF has said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits — mostly combat troops — due to the strain on standing and reserve forces caused by the multi-front war of recent years.

Moshe Gafni, the chairman of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism’s Degel HaTorah faction, dismissed the report as “a complete fabrication.”

Gafni’s faction has been more supportive of the legislation, as opposed to the other UTJ faction, Agudat Yisrael, which opposes the bill because it contains sanctions on draft evaders even while effectively exempting most Haredi men from the draft.

Agugat Yisrael chair Yitzhak Goldknopf responded much more angrily to the report, and didn’t suggest that it was false.

“The cat is out of the bag. It is as I have said from the beginning: Netanyahu has not, and never had, any intention of honoring the coalition agreement and his commitment to the Haredi parties,” Goldknopf said in a statement.

Spokesmen for the ultra-Orthodox Shas party and Netanyahu’s Likud did not reply to The Times of Israel’s requests for comment.

The controversial legislation was taken off the table in March with the outbreak of the US-Israeli war with Iran. However, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth later announced at the that he would continue to advance it, while Shas chairman Aryeh Deri has predicted that it will pass after the parliamentary recess, which ends May 10.

Despite this, there has been no forward motion on the legislation due to opposition by Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsch, one of the Degel HaTorah party’s two senior rabbinic leaders.

Last week, Channel 12 reported that Hirsch had refused even to meet with his party’s lawmakers to discuss the issue, a sharp contrast with the support shown by Rabbi Dov Lando, the party’s overall spiritual leader.

Conscription is likely to be one of the central issues of the 2026 Knesset election, with all Jewish opposition factions promising to enlist the Haredim should they form the next government.

Asked for comment on the Behadrei Haredim report, a spokeswoman for Bismuth told The Times of Israel that “we are in full coordination with the prime minister. The ball is in his hands right now.”

Last week, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara determined that tax exemptions will be withdrawn from ultra-Orthodox yeshivas whose students fail to obey conscription orders from the military.

Several days earlier, the High Court explicitly ruled that the state must not provide any funds, directly or indirectly, to such institutions, most recently in a recent decision in which it ordered government agencies to condition certain welfare benefits on military service as a way of revoking those benefits from ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers.

The court said it had issued such orders because the government had failed to implement its ruling from November 2025 that it must adopt enforcement measures.

360 ultra-Orthodox men draft to the military this week

Meanwhile, the military on Wednesday reported that some 360 ultra-Orthodox men were drafted to the IDF this week.

A total of 231 troops joined combat roles, including in the Hasmonean Brigade, the Netzah Yehuda Battalion in the Kfir Brigade, the Hetz Company in the Paratroopers Brigade’s 202nd Battalion, the Nevatim Airbase’s ground defense unit, and the Border Police. Another 131 Haredi soldiers were drafted to combat support roles, including fighter jet technician units.

The military said more Haredi troops were expected to join the IDF over the coming two weeks, as part of this draft cohort.

The IDF said it continues its efforts to draft more ultra-Orthodox soldiers, “out of operational necessity.”

The efforts include expanding existing units for Haredim, implementing new protocols that regulate the service conditions for Haredi troops, and providing opportunities for ultra-Orthodox soldiers to advance to command and officer roles.

The military said it aims to enable Haredi soldiers to have a “meaningful [military] service, while fully preserving [their] ultra-Orthodox way of life.”

Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.